Best Boutique Brand Awards - Europe
A great first event!

A successful wager
On Thursday 25 February 2021 at 6pm CET/5 pm GMT, over 600 industry guests, from brands and stores, welcomed in different virtual meeting rooms according to language, took part in the event organized by Intima Group and its partners (SOUS, Underlines and CYL), broadcast live from the TV studios in Milan.
Splendidly hosted by presenter Audrey Sadleir, and Francesca Spinetta, Editorial Director and co-owner of Intima Media Group, the event opened with the presentation of the 2020 overview for European stores: sales results, leading categories, buying intentions and clients expectations. The time then came to unveil the results of the best-selling brands per category for each country. « We know how sensitive ranking brands can be. This is why we invite you to consider this with kindness, only to congratulate never to discredit, because this is the spirit of the event » Francesca Spinetta stressed in her premise. The flow of the presentation was further enlivened by surprise guest speakers who expressed their thoughts on the future of the industry: Dario Casalini, CEO of Maglificio Po (Oscalito); Patrice Kretz, Chairman and CEO of the Chantelle Group; Matthias Mey, Managing Director of Mey; Liesbeth Van de Velde, Head of Design of the Van de Velde Group ; Clemens Friemel, Marketing and Sales Director of Anita Group. To round up this first edition, here is a summary if the main intimate apparel groups in Europe, followed by the results by brand and country.

The winning brands
Here are the lists of the best-selling brands by country and by product category for the year 2020:

FRANCE
PrimaDonna (bra sets), PrimaDonna (larger sizes), Wacoal (shapewear), Anita Active (sports bras), Le Chat (sleep/loungewear), Wolford (hosiery), Oscalito (daywear), Antigel (swimwear), Aubademen (men), Lise Charmel (luxury)

ITALY
Chantelle (bra sets), Chantelle (larger sizes), Janira (shapewear), Anita Active (sports bras), Verdissima (sleep/loungewear), Wolford (hosiery), Oscalito (daywear), Maryan Mehlhorn (swimwear), Julipet (men), Paladini (luxury)

SPAIN
PrimaDonna (bra sets), PrimaDonna (larger sizes), Janira (shapewear), Anita Active (sports bras), Barandi (sleep/loungewear), Janira (hosiery), Chantelle (daywear), Antigel (swimwear), Calvin Klein (men), Andres Sarda (luxury)

GERMANY
Marie Jo (bra sets), PrimaDonna (larger sizes), Spanx (shapewear), Anita Active (sports bras), Mey (sleep/loungewear), Mey (daywear), Sunflair (swimwear), Aubade (luxury)

UK AND IRELAND
Empreinte (bra sets), Elomi (larger sizes), Miraclesuit (shapewear), Anita Active (sports bras), Cyberjammies (sleep/loungewear), Falke (hosiery), Rosa Faia (swimwear), Aubade (luxury)

Genesis of the project
With its extensive experience in carrying out quality surveys and in organizing celebrated award events scouting the best boutiques within the main European markets, Intima Media Group and its partners in Europe this time wanted to put the spotlight on the brands. The brands who have also been through challenging times during this heath crisis: orders cancelled, payment delays, production and delivery issues as well as the difficulty of planning production… and all this with staff working from home, reduced work hours or sometimes even affected by Covid themselves. And yet the companies were able to reorganise themselves, inventing new ways of working with their clients, they were there, creating increasingly strong and personal relations. All this deserves to be acknowledged, and their efforts must be recognised by the entire intimate apparel community.

A panel of the TOP500 European boutiques
Who could be more suitable to judge the brands’ success than the boutiques which sell them? Selected on the basis of their consecutive nominations within the best shop awards of each participating country, the stores which made up the highly qualified TOP 500 multibrand panel carefully replied to our questionnaires covering the themes of Intima’s annual survey, which were : annual sales results, sales by category, buying intentions but also a section dedicated to the best-selling brands.

A big thank you to our supporting brands
Intima Media Group and its partners wish to express a big and particular thank you to those brands who supported the Best Boutique Brand Awards thereby making the staging of the event possible: Aubade, Chantelle, Louisa Bracq, Maison Lejaby, Marie Jo, Oscalito, PrimaDonna, Selmark and Simone Pérèle.

For additional information:
bba@intimagroup.com